Careyba wrote:My thoughts are that the team lack confidence and are poorly coached. Listening to the short Hurn interview at HT, it seems that the tactic is to give up the midfield, recover the ball in the backline and go from there. This would explain why week-in week-out we get chopped to pieces in the midfield once teams take possession of the ball. We are a step off the other team, are slow and therefore spend the game chasing, missing tackles and looking like we are disinterested.

To be fair there was a very strong breeze and carlton took full advantage in the third quarter...we used it well in the last but....but you are right there are issues that need looking into.

The biggest concern for me is the constant fascination of turning half of our squad into half back flankers. Okay Yeo and Duggan have played well off the half back line but play them in the middle for christ sake !!

Wellingham last week for east perth in wet conditions played well in the middle for the Royals.......why was he not given an extended run in the middle ??

Partington has never been given a run in the middle yet

I believe its not going to change this year...Simpson is too fixed in his ways to change anything...next year with Pridda Mitchell retiring hopefully we will see Yeo Duggan Venables Partington take the next step and become gun full time mids

Positives for me was the outstanding form of JK....after missing 5 games and is leading the coleman is a fantastic achievment which I believe the media is not giving credit for.....If it was a Melb based player they would be all over it ....fingers crossed he can win the coleman becoming the first player in years to win 3 in a row...that would be awesome

The Gov was good again...controlliing the air and some good passes

Shuey good runs in the last quarter but still not getting enough ball for me

JK,well you know he delivers every week. Vardy had a great game considering who his opponent was, and Shuey was back to to nearly his best with his disposal, WE got the 4 points which was all that mattered.

farmer joe wrote:Good luck to any team that wants Eric MacKenzie. The guy is a joke. Takes a mark in our defensive zone, no body near him and he turns straight around and kicks it backwards. He has NFI.

I was there, having seen a half of West Perth v East Fremantle, so perhaps appreciated the quality a bit more than I otherwise would have.

Put JK in a Carlton jumper and we lose to the second bottom team.

I too think the players are trying hard but have lost belief. Not surprising really, the club set itself for a Premiership this year, won't do it so is another year or two further back in the necessary rebuild. Overrated the list and underrated the impact of the loss of NicNat on our midfield.

Considering those circumstances it was a gutsy win against a young team who came over with nothing to lose apart from a game.

I still really like Matt Priddis and we will seriously miss his 10 tackles a game, but there it is.

Need to draft and grow some serious talent and pace.

Off field, I can see a half empty Perth stadium for both WA teams if they overdo the pricing and/or this level of competitiveness continues. Went by public transport yesterday and noticed how old our supporter demographic is. Need to do something about that too.

Total Package wrote:In better news Willie Rioli kicked 4 in the WAFL yesterday. He's had a good run of 4 games now... maybe another game in the WAFL and debut him last round at Subi. Something to look forward to.

Why not play him this week ??? We have nothing to lose ....if he is good as people say ...

Total Package wrote:In better news Willie Rioli kicked 4 in the WAFL yesterday. He's had a good run of 4 games now... maybe another game in the WAFL and debut him last round at Subi. Something to look forward to.

Why not play him this week ??? We have nothing to lose ....if he is good as people say ...

Because I sincerely fear for him having to play as a forward against GWS over there with their midfield against ours. He will probably pull a hamstring from being cold standing in the forward line for 20 mins without the ball coming in.

He has only played 1 game in the seniors in the WAFL... so can do with another game. Then debut him in our last home game at Subi where we might actually have half a chance with Adelaide bringing their reserves side over.

Voice of Reason wrote:Went by public transport yesterday and noticed how old our supporter demographic is. Need to do something about that too.

He's a suggestion. Let's remove concession membership for the oldies so it is only those in receipt of a FULL aged pension who get it. My block is almost entirely made up of concenssion coloured membership cards. It must cost the club a fortune.

Total Package wrote:In better news Willie Rioli kicked 4 in the WAFL yesterday. He's had a good run of 4 games now... maybe another game in the WAFL and debut him last round at Subi. Something to look forward to.

Why not play him this week ??? We have nothing to lose ....if he is good as people say ...

I was actually pleasantly surprised that we won that game.Granted, it's not exactly high praise of your team when they're playing against the #17 team, at home, scores are tied at the last change, they're kicking with a gale behind them, and you're fully expecting them to screw it up. But I did, and they didn't, so ...

The weather forecast I saw earlier in the day was going to keep me at home. Only once I saw the 4:30pm update did I do a quick change of mind and go along. I wonder if that is partly to blame for the small crowd. I have to say though - kudos to all the Blues fans. They were everywhere. Made the win a bit sweeter, actually, after they'd gotten all loud and confident by 3Q time (understandably) ... to actually be able to silence them in the 4th.JK, Shuey, Gov, Mitchell & Yeo were all good I thought. I thought Vardy did some good things too. He has been a handy pick-up.

farmer joe wrote:

Voice of Reason wrote:Went by public transport yesterday and noticed how old our supporter demographic is. Need to do something about that too.

He's a suggestion. Let's remove concession membership for the oldies so it is only those in receipt of a FULL aged pension who get it. My block is almost entirely made up of concenssion coloured membership cards. It must cost the club a fortune.

No need to do anything about it anymore. I think this problem will sort itself out next season when seating supply finally exceeds demand.

Careyba wrote:My thoughts are that the team lack confidence and are poorly coached. Listening to the short Hurn interview at HT, it seems that the tactic is to give up the midfield, recover the ball in the backline and go from there. This would explain why week-in week-out we get chopped to pieces in the midfield once teams take possession of the ball. We are a step off the other team, are slow and therefore spend the game chasing, missing tackles and looking like we are disinterested.

If that is in fact the game plan, it is not a very good one and is not working.Time and time again we are killed on the rebound. If we lose the ball on our HF line it goes through the middle so quickly and with so little pressure that our backs have no chance to get in position or recover the ball.

What I find so annoying is that when we switch off, we really switch off. Against St Kilda (and the pies, and...) when we died in the last quarter the opposition not only had the ball 60-75% of the time, they were out tackling us 2 or 3 to 1. Against Carlton, in that period from midway through Q2 to 1 minute to go in Q3, not only did we only get 2 inside 50s (2 points!), we were out tackled despite rarely being in possession.

A game plan that involves giving up the midfield and then chasing with guys that are slower than those with the ball is quite frankly a stupid one.

Total Package wrote:In better news Willie Rioli kicked 4 in the WAFL yesterday. He's had a good run of 4 games now... maybe another game in the WAFL and debut him last round at Subi. Something to look forward to.

Why not play him this week ??? We have nothing to lose ....if he is good as people say ...

Because I sincerely fear for him having to play as a forward against GWS over there with their midfield against ours. He will probably pull a hamstring from being cold standing in the forward line for 20 mins without the ball coming in.

He has only played 1 game in the seniors in the WAFL... so can do with another game. Then debut him in our last home game at Subi where we might actually have half a chance with Adelaide bringing their reserves side over.

Would be handy getting him to debut this season so he can get a good understanding on what is required over the off-season, 2 games might be even better, especially if he does have to cop a GWS pantsing so that he can set his off-season goals higher. The issue will be his hamstring. its tough balancing whether to just lock him away and have him conditioned for next year and exposing him to top flight footy. I feel we will probably lose either way with our decisions regarding Rioli. Either we will play him and he will break down or he wont play and wont get the exposure or worse still get injured.